"Well, boys, everything looks serene," said our employer, when we had walked to the farther end of the depot."I can get all the money I need, even if we shipped part way, which I don't intend to do.The banks admit that cattle are a slow sale and a shade lower this spring, and are not as free with their money as a year or two ago.My bankers detained me over an hour until they could send for a customer who claimed to have a very fine lot of beeves for sale in Lasalle County.That he is anxious to sell there is no doubt, for he offered them to me on my own time, and agrees to meet any one's prices.I half promised to come back next week and go down with him to Lasalle and look his cattle over.If they show up right, there will be no trouble in buying them, which will complete our purchases.It is my intention, Jim, to give you the herd to fill our earliest delivery.Our next two occur so near together that you will have to represent me at one of them.
The Buford cattle, being the last by a few weeks, we will both go up there and see it over with.There are about half a dozen trail foremen anxious for the two other herds, and while they are good men, I don't know of any good reason for not pushing my own boys forward.I have already decided to give Dave Sponsilier and Quince Forrest two of the Buford herds, and I reckon, Tom, the last one will fall to you.
The darkness in which we were standing shielded my egotism from public view.But I am conscious that I threw out my brisket several inches and stood straight on my bow-legs as I thanked old man Don for the foremanship of his sixth herd.Flood was amused, and told me afterward that my language was extravagant.There is an old superstition that if a man ever drinks out of the Rio Grande, it matters not where he roams afterward, he is certain to come back to her banks again.I had watered my horse in the Yellowstone in '82, and ever afterward felt an itching to see her again.And here the opportunity opened before me, not as a common cow-hand, but as a trail boss and one of three in filling a five million pound government beef contract! But it was dark and I was afoot, and if I was a trifle "chesty," there had suddenly come new colorings to my narrow world.
On the arrival of the train, several other westward-bound cowmen boarded it.We all took seats in the smoker, it being but a two hours' run to our destination.Flood and I were sitting well forward in the car, the former almost as elated over my good fortune as myself."Well, won't old Quince be all puffed up,"said Jim to me, "when the old man tells him he's to have a herd.
Now, I've never said a word in favor of either one of you.Of course, when Mr.Lovell asked me if I knew certain trail foremen who were liable to be idle this year, I intimated that he had plenty of material in his employ to make a few of his own.The old man may be a trifle slow on reaching a decision, but once he makes up his mind, he's there till the cows come home.Now, all you and Quince need to do is to make good, for you couldn't ask for a better man behind you.In making up your outfit, you want to know every man you hire, and give a preference to gray hairs, for they're not so liable to admire their shadow in sunny or get homesick in falling weather.Tom, where you made a ten-strike with the old man was in accepting that horse herd at Dodge last fall.Had you made a whine or whimper then, the chances are you wouldn't be bossing a herd this year.Lovell is a cowman who likes to see a fellow take his medicine with a smile."
